US billionaire busted with stolen Greek antiquities

According to US media, police discovered stolen Greek antiquities after raiding the home of billionaire Michael Steinhardt in New York.

Several of the artifacts seized from from the home of Michael H. Steinhardt as part of an investigation 
by the Manhattan district attorney’s office [Credit New York District Attorney’s Office]

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has been in contact with Greece’s Ministry of Culture over the incident.

“The Ministry of Culture and Sports is in contact with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and we are waiting for the official briefing so that we can see which objects we will request to be returned. For the lekythos, the necessary procedures were imitated since last month,” the Ministry’s general secretary Maria Andreadi-Vlazaki told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency.

A white-ground oil vessel taken in the raid [Credit: Manhattan 
District Attorney's Office]

According to prosecutors Steinhardt had in his possession ancient artworks that prosecutors say were looted from Greece and Italy. Among them is a Greek white-ground attic lekythos – or oil vessel – from the fifth century BC, depicting a funeral scene with the figures of a woman and a youth, and Proto-Corinthian figures from the seventh century BC, depicting an owl and a duck.

Source: Greek City Times [January 07, 2018]